


Realization

by nijiirorhyme



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M, Season 3 Spoilers, slight angst, slight mikasa appearance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:47:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29516931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nijiirorhyme/pseuds/nijiirorhyme
Summary: Armin realized that perhaps him and Eren never had the same dream after all.
Relationships: Armin Arlert/Eren Yeager
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32





	Realization

“The sea?” a younger Eren asked incredulously as if such a thing could ever exist.

“Yeah!” an over enthusiastic Armin answered back, looking at the image of its rough waves on the page now yellowed from age. “It’s a salt lake so big that merchants could spend their whole lives and still not get all of the salt! It’s endless! Flaming water, lands made of ice, fields of sand... Who knows what else lies outside the walls! Don’t you want to see it too, Eren?”

Eren nodded, his eyes filling with wonder at everything that Armin had mentioned, mimicking Armin’s own smile, a smile that stretched from ear to ear. “Yeah. Let’s all see it together one day.” 

“Yeah!” Armin smiled, blue eyes sparkling as he was overjoyed at the thought that the three of them seeing it together one day. “Together.” 

Armin stared down at his feet, letting the cool waves of the ocean lap at his feet. In between them, what seemed to be a hard bumpy rock with a bulbous top, tapering off into a narrow point resting in the sand beneath it. He picked it up, only to realize that it was something that the book once mentioned briefly; a shell, probably one a sea creature happened to live in, but was now long gone. 

He let it rest between the palms of his hands, the water he scooped up alongside it leaking out between his fingers running down his arms and plopping back into the larger body of water. Behind him, a little yelp escaped from Mikasa’s lips as she pulled off her boots and finally felt the cool water between her toes. Her mouth upturned at the corners into a rare, but gentle smile, only for Armin to return her’s with one of his own. 

Then, he turned to Eren in disbelief, his back being the only thing to face him in the near distance as he looked out to the vast, clear blue unknown ahead of them. The light from the sun’s rays flickered, disappearing behind the clouds overhead. In this light, Eren looked as if he were ethereal in the sun’s rays, his now shoulder length hair flowing in the light ocean breeze. The smell of salt water and wet sand filling Armin’s nose as the sound of birds he did not know the name of squawking in the distance.

“Didn’t I tell you, Eren?” his voice cracking from the happiness welling up within his chest. This was his dream. A dream that felt so far from him when they were kids, then once they had joined the Survey Corps., had always been held out before him at an arm’s length, close enough to touch, but unable to grasp. Now, he had a firm hold on it, and he never wanted to let go. He would trade anything in the world for them to live in this moment forever. After all the people they had lost, after everything they had sacrificed, all of it seemed as if it were worth it in the end. “A salt lake so big that merchants could spend their whole lives and still not get all of the salt…” a familiar burning sensation crawled up his throat, the corner of his eyes pricking with tears. “The things I talked about weren’t wrong after all!” 

Eren took a moment to respond, his face hidden from Armin’s view. He couldn’t tell what expression Eren was making. Was he just as happy as them? “Yeah,” he replied, his voice emotionless. “It’s so damn big…” 

Armin looked down at the shell in his hands, “Yeah…” he agreed, his voice rich with fondness. A light pink dusted his cheeks. He gazed at Eren, then at the shell between his palms. To commemorate this occasion… he took a step forward, his cheeks flushing somewhat in embarrassment at what he wanted to do. “Look Eren! On the other side of the wall--” 

“There’s a sea.” Eren replied, filling in a sentence that he had heard many times over. Armin stopped in his tracks, his smile dropped and he listened intently to what the man was going to say next. “On the other side of the sea… is freedom. That’s what I always believed. But… I was wrong. On the other side of the sea are enemies.” He turned to him and Mikasa, a mixture of pain and melancholy settling over his features. “Every part of this is exactly what I saw in my dad’s memories.” 

Eren pointed a finger out into the great beyond, as if it were calling him across. His voice low and weary, “Hey… If we kill all our enemies over there… will we finally.. be free?” 

A weight settled over him as his happiness began to fade.. That was right, how could he have been so naive? His hands dropped, the shell still between them as the rest of the water spilled out between his palms. An arrow of realization pierced his chest. That was right. Seeing the sea had been his dream, but when had it been Eren’s? 

Armin was speechless and without uttering another word, Eren turned back towards the sea, his bangs lightly brushing his face as he did. Armin would never forget that expression he saw on Eren’s face. The one from someone who looked like he had seen too much, too tired from the burden of life’s experiences and the weight of those he had eaten resting heavy on his shoulders. 

Vivid memories of the past Eren flashed across his mind, ones he kept in a box in the very corner of his mind and couldn’t help but turn over in his mind on the occasion. The short-tempered Eren who would always come to save him from the bullies with Mikasa following a mere few steps behind him. The Eren who flung himself into a titan’s mouth to save him, getting eaten in the process. The Eren who shed tears for him after he awoke from the titan serum injection and wrapped his firm arms around him, reassuring him that everything was going to be fine. The Eren who would flash a gentle smile towards him and only him. The Eren he loved.

At one point in time, Armin thought the two of them held the same dream. At one point in time, Armin thought that they held the same belief in freedom. But somewhere along the way, the Eren he shared this with had ceased to exist. Or maybe, the reason this hit him so hard was because he realized that that Eren had never existed to begin with.

**Author's Note:**

> HELELEOOOO!! I haven't written in a hot minute (looks at my uncompleted works and sweats) but I've been sinking further and further into aot hell again and have a very very soft and tender spot for eremin. When I saw the prompt for greetings/farewells, (and idk if this counts but) I decided to take a more like... different approach so to speak and instead of them physically saying goodbye to each other, it's more so Armin having to say goodbye to that dream he thought he had with Eren and the realization that in fact their beliefs/dreams/etc are diverging into two different paths, which was why I thought this scene was so pivotal for their relationship. Also keep in mind that... I'm currently not caught up to the manga and my recollection of what happens in the anime is very very limited, but nevertheless, I hope you still enjoyed this. I planned to upload something for day one but then it ended up... spiralling out of control and getting very very long so mayhaps I will upload that later as a standalone. Also! Armin wanted to give the shell to Eren but I was unsure if like.. it came out clear enough but anyways!! Comments and kudos are always appreciated. I hope you are staying happy and healthy during these times!


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